2 Royal 2 Day

Today in English history we have two famous coronations:

On June 28, 1461 Edward IV was crowned just shy of his ninteenth birthday. He would have two reigns, 1461-1470, and 1471-1483, two famously disappearing sons, Edward V and Richard, Duke of York, better known as the Princes in the Tower, and his successor, the notorious Richard III, would reign for only two years.

The second coronation occurred June 28, 1838. Queen Victoria was just eighteen. Two is too small a number for her. She reigned over sixty-three years, had nine children and thirty-four grandchildren, whose royal marriages definitely made her “grandmother of Europe”. She wrote journals and many letters that fill volumes, so her personal life and personality are better known than almost any English monarch. This is convenient for filmmakers, who have made many a film about her life and will likely continue to do so, especially because of the undoubted lovematch that was her marriage to Prince Albert.